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When I worked retail, closing time was 9:30 and we did not get paid after 9:45. Stock was to be straightened and registers closed out by 9:45.
It was no fun having to hang around for late-comers on your own dime....
I think this is pretty much the way it usually is. I worked in food service and we would have people come in late feeling entitled to take their time and we were required to clock out at a certain time and often stayed after to finish without being paid and getting home late. We had 30 minutes to clean up and put everything away and that wasn't 30 minutes extra for the customers to lollygag. I didn't stay there very long!
Seriously, can you believe that one person would feel so entitled to hold up 2 or maybe more employees from getting their jobs completed? Selfishness thrives!
And, it is so important that people do the customer surveys for this reason because those people have to serve these "entitled" people who shoot them down if they don't get treated like royalty. Let the stores know that their employees are doing a great job to override the grossly entitled.
A well run and managed retail operation will always account for late shoppers. They will assume the store closes and start ushering shoppers out at a reasonable time after the posted closing hour. My neighbor manages a retail operation for a european clothing retailer. The posted closing time is the time they close their doors to incoming shoppers, it is not the time the store actually closes.
Obviously not true for all stores, certainly not for the company I work for.
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If a store and its employees are scheduled so that the posted closing time is the time they need every customer out and the employees expect to go home, they should have locked the doors earlier. It's not the customers fault the doors are open (invitation to enter and shop) and they were let in just to expect them to high tail it out the door the second the clock strikes closing time. That is just poor management.
Do you know what you get when you try that?
"Why are your doors closed, your sign says you close at xx:00? I insist you let me in because it's not xx:00 yet, if you don't let me in I'm making a complaint to your HQ"
It really isn't that difficult to realize that if you come into a store 10 or 15 minutes before the closing time that you need to get your items and be in line to checkout by closing. Lots of people manage to do just that. Open doors are not an invitation to come in and browse for however long you want to, they are an opportunity to come in and get what you need in the time available to you.
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Would any of you in retail who are upset at customers still shopping at the closing time be so accepting if you’re on the phone with a company seeking assistance and right at the end of their normal business hours they tell you they have to go? You would think that poor customer service and a poorly run operation, so why do you feel when you do it that it should be accepted?
If I were so shortsighted that I couldn't figure out I need to give myself ample time to deal with whatever issues I had I would fault myself for that. Poor time management on my part to call just before closing and expect others to make an exception for me.
A very large Grocery chain had a store clerk at the door with a key letting customers out as they finished their purchase.
A man approached to enter and buy something and was told that the store was CLOSED whereupon the man replied "I'm ***** **********". Clerk says that he does not know the person......... still closed...Sorry.
Man asked to speak with the MGR who identified the man.....(senior Vice President of the Chain ).
Within a week the clerk received a PROMOTION to 3rd man (position below the assistant Mgr)
We dropped by Kmart last evening on our way home, they close at 10:00pm, it was 9:55pm, we headed home without going inside. I have one thing I want to purchase and it would have taken about 2 minutes to find it if that long and a couple minutes to check out however, we decided to go home because we did not want to delay anyone who was working so they could get off of work and move on with whatever it is they do after working.
"Why are your doors closed, your sign says you close at xx:00? I insist you let me in because it's not xx:00 yet, if you don't let me in I'm making a complaint to your HQ"
You're not reading it correctly.
It's like this; the stores posted closing time is 8 p.m. That is the time posted on the door. That is the time they close and lock the entrances to new walk-ins. That is the time a “store is closed” announcement is made.
That is not the time the operation ceases.
The company gives the staff an additional one half hour to work with existing customers in the store. During that half hour, staff and management reminds the shoppers that the store is closed and they need to bring their purchases to the checkout. During that half hour, all phases of customer assistance continue, including keeping registers open. Employees are expected to maintain the same high standard because they are scheduled and being paid to work that half hour.
At the one half hour mark after closing, that is when the staff is now considered in close-up mode. That is when registers start to be tallied, when stock is moved, when cleaning starts and when lights are dimmed. Employees are still on the clock and expected to adhere to work polices.
Any customer remaining becomes the responsibility of the store manager to get out of the store. However, because the employees continue as if open during that half hour after the posted closing time, they never have issues because customers appreciate the respectful european way of treating customers.
If the posted closing time and the time everyone ends work are the same, that is just poor management. Don’t take it out on the customer, take it out on management who is too cheap to pay you to service the customers you invited in by having the doors open!
If it is late and you suddenly realize you need one thing, I can see running to the store to get it. But to do your big shopping trip up against the store's closing time is crazy.
I used to work in a grocery store that closed at midnight. I was usually the closing front end manager (and only cashier) on Sundays. We had this lady come in every Sunday night after 11:30 to start her shopping. The problem is our sales would change on Mondays and the prices would automatically change at the stroke of midnight. She was very slow and despite our "We are about to close, get your crap in the buggy and get your ass up to checkout" announcement, she wouldn't get to the front until around 12:15.
She was also a cherry picker who'd buy all the sale items. So the closing store manager and I would have to look through the sales flier to see the old prices because the register would ring them up under the new price.
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Selfishness thrives!
